June

June 22, 2015

June 22, 2015

SUMMER FAYRE:Saturday 27 June

The Charterhouse near Barbican hosts a free summer fayre with maypole dancing, food and drink stalls, face painting, a tombola, children’s activities and more. There’s also a tour of the Charterhouse. Free, just turn up, 12pm-4.30pm

June 22, 2015

June 22, 2015

Serpentine Pavilion 2015 Set To Open

In the renders it looks like someone’s experimented with a packet of jelly babies in a microwave. In real life, this year’s Serpentine Pavilion is even more colourful, like someone’s held a paint fight in Timmy Mallett’s wardrobe.

Every year, Serpentine Galleries invites a new architect to design a temporary event space, which then lurks outside for the duration of the summer. This year’s choice is the SelgasCano studio from Madrid, fronted by José Selgas and Lucía Cano.

It’s a blast. And almost impossible to describe. Imagine that someone announced an amnesty for 1980s shell suits, then stitched them all together into a gaudy canvas igloo. Then stuck a coffee bar in the corner. Press morning was one of the greyest this month. Yet inside the coruscating tent, all is bright. We couldn’t spot any artificial lighting — the structure seems to phosphoresce.

As ever, the Pavilion is not simply an eye-catching bauble. Over selected Fridays throughout the summer, it will play host to a programme of ‘Park Nights’ events, featuring talks and performances (good luck finding them on the over-designed website). The series begins with a prelude tomorrow (23 June), celebrating 15 years of the pavilion commission.

As a space to walk around, we’d rate this year’s pavilion as the best for some time. It’s quite simply a big bag of fun, and much less po-faced than many of its predecessors. You might want to wear shades on the sunniest days, however.

Directions

First step …

Preheat the oven to 180 C

Roughly chop the cauliflower. Place 1 tbsp of coconut oil into a roasting tray and pop it into the oven for 1 minute to melt. Take it out and pop the cauliflower, chilli flakes, a big pinch of salt and smoked paprika on top. Rub the spice and oil into the cauliflower so it is evenly coated. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes until nice and golden.

While this is cooking, let’s prepare the rest of the salad. Finely grate the fennel, then pour the juice of 1 lime on top.

Drain and wash the chickpeas. Heat 1 tbsp of coconut oil in a pan on a medium to high heat. Place the chickpeas and a pinch of salt into the pan and sauté for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Set this aside once cooked.

Slice up the avocado and pour over some lime juice to stop browning.

Mix the olive oil, vinegar and mustard together with a pinch of salt.

Cut up the lettuce, place into a bowl, throw on the cauliflower, chickpeas, fennel, avocado, the dressing and some chilli flakes. Then dig in!

June 22, 2015

June 22, 2015

LAUNDRY SERVICE

We have recently carried out a survey of all of our laundries (except for Anson Road, which has a brand new facility). We are considering a number of options to improve the service.

It is likely that all of our current machines will be changed for new models in October/November, which is when renewal is due. The new machines have an increased load capacity, and an ‘eco’ setting that you can select to use less energy and water.

We are considering changing over to a cash free system, which will utilise an electronic card that you will be able to load with money online, or using a telephone app.